Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 143 / Thursday, July 26, 2007 / Notices 41051 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Farm Service Agency 

Information Collection: Emergency 

Conservation Program 

AGENCY: Farm Service Agency, USDA. 

ACTION: Notice; request for comments. 

SUMMARY: In accordance with the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the 

Farm Service Agency (FSA) is seeking 

comments from all interested 

individuals and organizations on the 

revision of currently approved 

information collection associated with 

the Emergency Conservation Program 

(ECP). 

DATES: Comments on this notice must be 

received on or before September 24, 

2007 to be assured consideration. 

ADDRESSES: We invite you to submit 

comments on this Notice. In your 

comment, include the volume, date, and 

page number of this issue of the Federal 

Register. You may submit comments by 

any of the following methods: 

E-mail: Send comments to: 

Clayton.Furukawa@wdc.usda.gov. 

Fax: (202) 720–4619. 

Mail: Farm Service Agency, USDA, 

Attn: Clayton Furukawa, ECP Program 

Manager, Conservation and 

Environmental Programs Division, 

USDA, FSA, STOP 0513, 1400 

Independence Avenue, SW., 

Washington, DC 20250–0513. 

Comments also should be sent to the 

Desk Officer for Agriculture, Office of 

Information and Regulatory Affairs, 

Office of Management and Budget, 

Washington, DC 20503. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Clayton Furukawa, ECP Program 

Manager, (202) 690–0571. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Description of Information Collection 

Title: Emergency Conservation 

Program. 

OMB Control Number: 0560–0082. 

Expiration Date: February 28, 2010. 

Type of Request: Revision of a 

Currently Approved Information 

Collection. 

Abstract: This information collection 

is to allow FSA to effectively administer 

the regulations under the ECP. The 

regulations at 7 CFR part 701 set forth 

basic policies, program provisions, and 

eligibility requirements for owners and 

operators to enter into agreement with 

to apply for financial and technical 

assistance and for receiving cost-share 

payments under the ECP. The revision 

to the currently approved information 

collection is in response to, and 

consistent with, the new requirement 

that an Adjusted Gross Income 

Limitation be used when determining 

the eligibility of certain respondents 

who wish to participate in the ECP, 

pursuant to the provisions of Section 

9004(b) of Public Law 110–28. 

Estimate of Burden: Public reporting 

burden for this collection of information 

is estimated to average .25 hours (15 

minutes) per response. The average 

travel time, which is included in the 

total annual burden, is estimated to be 

1 hour per respondent. 

Respondents: Owners, operators and 

other eligible agricultural producers on 

eligible farmland. 

Number of Respondents: 90,000. 

Estimated Annual Number of 

Respondents: 90,420. 

Estimated Number of Responses per 

Respondent: 1. 

Estimated Total Annual Burden on 

Respondents: 67,610. 

Comments 

Comments are invited on: 

(1) Whether this collection 

information is necessary for the proper 

performance of the functions of the 

agency, including whether the 

information will have practical utility; 

(2) The accuracy of the agency’s 

estimate of burden, including the 

validity of the methodology and 

assumptions used; 

(3) Ways to enhance the quality, 

utility, and clarity of the information to 

be collected; and 

(4) Ways to minimize the burden of 

the collection of the information on 

those who are to respond, including the 

use of appropriate automated, 

electronic, mechanical, or other 

technological collection techniques or 

other forms of information technology. 

All comments received in response to 

this notice, including names and 

addresses when provided, will be a 

matter of public records. Comments will 

be summarized and included in the 

submission for Office of Management 

and Budget approval. 

Signed at Washington, DC, on July 19, 

2007. 

Glen L. Keppy, 

Acting Administrator, Farm Service Agency. 

[FR Doc. E7–14385 Filed 7–25–07; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–05–P 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Notice of Intent To Prepare an 

Environmental Impact Statement 

AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA. 

PROJECT: Corralled Bear, Clearwater 

National Forest, Latah County, ID. 

ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare an 

environmental impact statement. 

SUMMARY: The USDA, Forest Service, 

will prepare an Environmental Impact 

Statement (EIS) to disclose the 

environmental effects of timber harvest, 

prescribed fire, fuels reduction, 

watershed restoration, and access 

management activities in the Corralled 

Bear project area on the Palouse Ranger 

District of the Clearwater National 

Forest. The Corralled Bear project area 

is located north of the towns of Deary 

and Helmer within the East Fork of Big 

Bear Creek and Corral Creek drainages, 

approximately 21 air-miles northeast of 

the town of Moscow, Idaho. 

DATES: This project was previously 

scoped in March 2006, and the 

comments received will be included in 

the documentation for the EIS. A 45-day 

public comment period will follow the 

release of the draft environmental 

impact statement (DEIS) that is expected 

in September 2007. The final 

environmental impact statement (FEIS) 

and Record of Decision (ROD) is 

expected in February 2008. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

Corralled Bear project area contains 

approximately 11,318 acres, which is all 

National Forest lands except for 160 

acres of private land. The project area is 

located in portions of T40N, R1W; 

T40N, R2W; T41N, R1W; and T41N, 

R2W, Boise Meridian, Latah County, 

Idaho. The proposed actions would 

occur on National Forest lands and are 

all outside the boundaries of any 

inventoried roadless area or any areas 

considered for inclusion to the National 

Wilderness System as recommended by 

the Clearwater National Forest Plan or 

by any past or present legislative 

wilderness proposals. 

Purpose and Need for Action is to: (1) 

Promote stand productivity, restore 

vegetative successional stages to reflect 

historical patch sizes and locations, and 

restore blister rust resistant white pine; 

(2) reduce fuel buildup in stands where 

fire suppression has interrupted the 

short-return fire interval and resulted in 

unnaturally high amounts of fuel and 

overgrown understory, and create a 

more defensible space to control 

wildfire on Forest Service land adjacent 

to private property; (3) reduce long-term 

sedimentation to streams caused by 

existing unsurfaced roads, and stabilize 

stream banks made unstable by 

motorized vehicles, cattle trailing, and 

channelization (historic railroad grades); 

(4) update fish/water quality standards 

for Corral Creek in Appendix K of the 

Clearwater Forest Plan to better meet the 

Clean Water Act standards supporting 

fisheries and reflect better information 


rwilkins on PROD1PC63 with NOTICES
41052 Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 143 / Thursday, July 26, 2007 / Notices 

on fisheries collected in stream surveys; 

and (5) provide for a reasonable level of 

off-highway vehicle (OHV) access, 

reduce user conflicts, and provide the 

necessary resource protection required 

by law, regulation, and good 

stewardship practices. 

The Proposed Action would consist of 

timber harvest on about 812 acres, using 

improvement cuts, commercial 

thinning, and regeneration harvest 

methods. Some regeneration harvests 

could create openings exceeding 40 

acres in size; however, all harvest will 

retain some healthy trees and 

replacement snags for structural 

diversity. Road activities associated 

with the timber sales would include 

reconstructing about 2.4 miles of 

existing roads and constructing 3.6 

miles of temporary road (to be 

decommissioned after harvest activity). 

About 8.6 miles of open roads would be 

treated on each side to reduce fuel 

concentrations and ladder fuels. 

Watershed improvements would 

include 8.2 miles of road 

decommissioning, putting 14.4 miles of 

existing roads into intermittent stored 

service (self-maintaining), and 

installation of a rocked cattle crossing. 

Access management would consist of 

designating existing suitable OHV 

routes for future use and managing area 

roads and trails based on a Roads 

Analysis. Other components of the 

proposed action include designating 

areas to be managed for old growth and 

making a Forest Plan Amendment to 

raise the fish/water quality standards on 

Corrall Creek to incorporate better 

information on fish and their habitat. 

Possible Alternatives the Forest 

Service will consider include the ‘‘no 

action ’’ alternative in which none of the 

proposed activities would be 

implemented. Additional alternatives 

being considered include an alternative 

that does not build any new roads, an 

alternative that does not create any 

openings by utilizing only intermediate 

(non-regeneration) type harvests like 

thinnings and improvement cuts, an 

alternative that promotes patch 

placement for maximum wildlife and 

biological benefits, an alternative that 

does not include a Forest Plan 

Amendment to increase the fish and 

water standard for Corral Creek, and an 

alternative that only includes activities 

that would help stabilize watershed 

conditions, such as road obliteration, 

stream bank stabilization and OHV use 

management. 

The Scoping Process was initiated 

with the release of a Scoping Letter on 

March 29, 2006. Comments received as 

a result of that effort will be included in 

the documentation for the EIS. 

Additional public input will be solicited 

following the release of the DEIS. This 

proposal also includes six openings 

greater than 40 acres in size that would 

be created by timber harvest. A 60-day 

public review of the proposed openings 

will be initiated by public notice in the 

newspaper of record. 

Preliminary Issues that could be 

affected by proposed activities include: 

Access management, air quality, 

economic feasibility, fish habitat, 

heritage resources, sensitive and 

management indicator species of 

wildlife, sensitive plants, snag habitat, 

soil productivity, spread of noxious 

weeds, tribal treaty rights, and water 

quality. Issues expected not to be 

affected by the proposal include impacts 

of grazing, old growth habitat, risk of 

landslides, and threatened and 

endangered wildlife and plant species. 

Issues identified through previous 

scoping and found to be outside the 

scope of the project or not consistent 

with Forest Plan standards include 

using prescribed fire instead of timber 

harvest for vegetative treatments within 

the E1 management area and evaluating 

cattle grazing laws. 

Early Notice of Importance of Public 

Participation in Subsequent 

Environmental Review: A draft 

environmental impact statement will be 

prepared for comment. The comment 

period on the draft environmental 

impact statement will be 45 days from 

the date the Environmental Protection 

Agency publishes the notice of 

availability in the Federal Register. 

The Forest Service believes, at this 

early stage, it is important to give 

reviewers notice of several court rulings 

related to public participation in the 

environmental review process. First, 

reviewers of draft environmental impact 

statements must structure their 

participation in the environmental 

review of the proposal so that it is 

meaningful and alerts an agency to the 

reviewer’s position and contentions. 

Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp. v. 

NRDC, 435 U.S. 519, 553 (1978). Also, 

environmental objections that could be 

raised at the draft environmental impact 

statement stage but that are not raised 

until after completion of the final 

environmental impact statement may be 

waived or dismissed by the courts. City 

of Angoon v. Hodel, 803 F.2d 1016, 

1022 (9th Cir. 1986) and Wisconsin 

Heritages, Inc. v. Harris, 490 F. Supp. 

1334, 1338 (E.D. Wis. 1980). Because of 

these court rulings, it is very important 

that those interested in this proposed 

action participate by the close of the 45- 

day comment period so that substantive 

comments and objections are made 

available to the Forest Service at a time 

when it can meaningfully consider them 

and respond to them in the final 

environmental impact statement. 

To assist the Forest Service in 

identifying and considering issues and 

concerns on the proposed action, 

comments on the draft environmental 

impact statement should be as specific 

as possible. It is also helpful if 

comments refer to specific pages or 

chapters of the draft statement. 

Comments may also address the 

adequacy of the draft environmental 

impact statement or the merits of the 

alternatives formulated and discussed in 

the statement. Reviewers may wish to 

refer to the Council on Environmental 

Quality Regulations for implementing 

the procedural provisions of the 

National Environmental Policy Act at 40 

CFR 1503.3 in addressing these points. 

Comments received, including the 

names and addresses of those who 

comment, will be considered part of the 

public record on this proposal and will 

be available for public inspection. 

(Authority: 40 CFR 1501.7 and 1508.22; 

Forest Service Handbook 1909.15, Section 

21) 

The Responsible Official for this 

project is the Forest Supervisor of the 

Clearwater National Forest, 12730 

Highway 12, Orofino, ID 83544. The 

Responsible Official will decide if the 

proposed project will be implemented 

and will document the decision and 

reasons for the decision in a Record of 

Decision. That decision will be subject 

to Forest Service Appeal Regulations. 

The responsibility for preparing the 

DEIS and FEIS has been delegated to 

Kara Chadwick, District Ranger, Palouse 

Ranger District. 

ADDRESSES: Written comments and 

suggestions concerning this project 

should be sent to: Kara Chadwick, 

District Ranger, Palouse Ranger District, 

1700 Highway 6, Potlatch, ID 83855 or 

e-mailed to: comments-northernclearwater-palouse@fs.fed.us. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tam 

White; Project Leader, North Fork 

Ranger District, at: twhite@fs.fed.us or 

phone: (208) 476–4541. 

Dated: July 19, 2007. 

Thomas K. Reilly, 

Forest Supervisor. 

[FR Doc. 07–3653 Filed 7–25–07; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–11–M 


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